South Africa to Vaccinate 200,000 Chickens for H5 Bird Flu
South Africa joins global push for bird flu vaccination as governments engineer deadlier H5N1 strains and greenlight strain-mismatched vaccines amid pandemic fears.
The Minister of Agriculture, John Steenhuisen, announced on Tuesday that South Africa will begin its first-ever vaccination of poultry in the coming days “as a proactive measure to minimise the risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreaks,” according to a government press release.
The move mirrors a similar push in the United States, where the USDA is advancing its first-ever poultry vaccination plan amid over $1 billion in bird flu payouts, ongoing gain-of-function virus experiments, and quiet approvals of strain-mismatched vaccines—fueling concerns of a coordinated setup for the next public health emergency.
South America’s move also comes as China, Brazil, South Korea (here), Japan, and the U.S. are all conducting gain-of-function bird flu experiments by synthetically engineering or modifying H5N1 viruses to increase lethality, mammalian adaptation, human cell infectivity, and drug resistance—despite the global risk of triggering a manmade pandemic.
In May, the Trump administration launched a $500 million “universal” pandemic vaccine project targeting bird flu.
Follow us on Instagram @realjonfleetwood & Twitter/X @JonMFleetwood.
If you value this reporting, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
The new announcement follows the South African Department of Agriculture’s issuance of a vaccination permit to Astral Foods Limited on June 30, authorizing the company “to begin vaccinating against the HPAI virus at one of its broiler breeder farms.”
“The vaccination campaign will begin with 200,000 broiler breeders, representing approximately 5% of Astral’s total breeding stock, valued at an estimated R35 million,” the press release reads.
The vaccine targets the “H5 strain of the virus” and “is already approved for use in other countries implementing vaccination strategies against HPAI,” though the release didn’t specify which jab.
Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) indicates there are three officially registered H5 vaccines for use in South Africa as of early 2025:
Vectormune® H5 (Ceva Santé Animale): a recombinant vector vaccine for day-old chicks.
Boehringer Ingelheim “B.E.S.T” H5 Vaccine: an inactivated, oil-adjuvanted H5 avian influenza vaccine co-formulated with Newcastle Disease virus.
Zoetis HPAI H5N1 Vaccine (Inactivated): an inactivated vaccine based on reverse genetics.
USDA Conditionally Approves Strain-Mismatched Bird Flu Vaccine From Pfizer Offshoot Zoetis
The Zoetis H5N1 vaccine approved in South Africa is also at the center of growing scrutiny in the United States, where the USDA recently issued the company a conditional license—but for a different product: a vaccine targeting H5N2, not the H5N1 subtype currently circulating.
That mismatch raises serious questions about its real-world effectiveness—especially since neither Zoetis nor the USDA have released the underlying data used to justify the approval.
The vaccine was greenlit under a “conditional license,” which Zoetis itself acknowledges is used only in “an emergency condition, limited market, local situation or other special circumstance,” and is valid for a limited time.
Zoetis CEO Kristin Peck told CNBC the company has been “working with the administration and with Congress,” adding, “we’re very excited today to get the licensure for [the vaccine] in poultry, which we think will be a tool that we will help support the government as they deem necessary.”
But what exactly does Congress know—and why is the government licensing poultry vaccines that don’t match the circulating strain while collaborating behind closed doors with a Pfizer-linked pharma giant?
To get answers, I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the USDA’s Center for Veterinary Biologics (CVB), demanding full disclosure of the data, records, and communications used to authorize the Zoetis H5N2 vaccine.
If federal agencies are quietly fast-tracking strain-mismatched bird flu vaccines while gain-of-function experiments escalate worldwide, the public deserves to know—before another “emergency” is declared.
As governments around the world simultaneously engineer deadlier bird flu strains and rush out questionable vaccines under the banner of preparedness, South Africa’s entry into the fold signals yet another domino falling in what appears to be a globally coordinated prelude to the next public health crisis.
Follow us on Instagram @realjonfleetwood & Twitter/X @JonMFleetwood.
If you value this reporting, consider upgrading to a paid subscription.
For advertising & sponsorship opportunities reaching 230,000+ monthly viewers, contact us by clicking below.
Science question: do all mRNA vaccines contain a self-reproducing protein that uniquely affects the recipient such that the recipient is genetically modified permanently? If so, is this modification passed on to any other animal/human using it for food? Is the health of the secondary recipient (the eater) thereby negatively affected?
Why more lethal.